Brendan Burns, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe's perennial angry man, has something to shout about today. After years of pouring gonzo-style scorn on the world the former hell-raiser from Down Under has won the IF Comedy Award, formerly the Perrier.

The radical and unexpected denouement of Burns's show is one of the best secrets in the world of stand-up comedy, let alone the history of the Fringe. His show So I Suppose This is Offensive Now has been widely hailed by critics as a perfectly judged piece of comic, not so social-political performance. The only hints as to the explosive content of his set to be offered by the comedian or his fan base have been to refer to the twists at the end of the films Fight Club and The Usual Suspects

The comic has been on an extraordinary journey during the years he has appeared in Edinburgh. A previous show, Sober Not Clean, revealed how he had been over the edge into insanity and returned with more to say and a more honest way to say it.